A Design and Development of Internet of Things (IoT) System and Learning Activity to Promote Computational Thinking

Abstract

Computational Thinking (CT), problem-solving and programming skills are important for the students with major of computer education of higher levels education which related to the computing science contents. The instructions must provide the basic contents and learning activities, including Internet of Things (IoT), big-data and programming, as well as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning. However, these courses present learning difficulties based upon the students' individual skills. Development and integration of the IoT system would offer supporting tools for learning activities and improve the students' computational thinking, problem-solving, and programming skills. This paper presents the design and development of IoT system to support students' computational thinking, problem-solving, and programming skills training through block-based programming and integrated platforms. The IoT system comprises three layers (hardware, middleware, and applications), using existing platforms and devices as well as newly developed. To validate the viability of the proposed pipelined realization, the developed systems were implemented for higher education level students of computer education program. The students' computational-thinking, problem-solving, and programming skills were significantly improved through the proposed learning system throughout the course.